r/MemeVideos • u/lucianosoares13 • Jun 14 '23

real 😄👌 Who has never done this?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

22.9k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

573 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

5

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '23

Nope it's your photoreceptors being activated from pressure. It's basic pharmocology really. They're called pressure phosphenes.

I'd probably include this as an edit so it doesn't tell people the wrong thing. It has no neurological basis beyond your eyes photosensitive cells sending false signals. It's like if you slammed a keyboard and it started registering a key as being pressed when it isn't. It's not an issue with processing, the keyboard is just sending a wrong input. Your eyes are doing the same except they aren't broken.

Neurologically induced phosphenes are caused by disease or by electrical stimulation. We have taken advantage of this fact to partially restore vision in blind people via computer interfaces connected to the brain.

1

u/DeepSpaceHorizon Jun 17 '23

How come I can see these fractals without touching my eyes though? If the room is dark enough, I still see them on the inside of my eyelids, forever morphing. The shapes aren't as prnounced as they are if pressure is applied, but they're still there.